Exploring the "Island of Stability": Can Enhanced Nuclear Shell Effects Lead to Long-Lived Nuclei Beyond Z=120?
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There are currently 118 elements in the periodic table but could there be more. Maybe there's an infinite number and we could eventually discover unobtainium. But let's forget about unobtanium for a minute and take a look at good old ubiquitous carbon elements are defined by the number of protons they have.Carbon So carbon is carbon because it has six protons it also has six and a bit neutrons a bit because it has three naturally occurring Isotopes carbon 12 and 13 are stable but they're heavier
  • xkforce@lemmy.world
    0·
    6 months ago

    The island of stability isn’t going to result in anything most people would consider “stable” i.e no Naquadah or Trinium. It could however, result in new superheavy isotopes that last seconds instead of milliseconds or microseconds like what would otherwise be expected.

    The island of (relative) stability results from the filling of nuclear shells similarly to how noble gases are as unreactive as they are in chemical reactions because their (electron) shells are full.